Camping - Sisters
21 Jun 2019Two Week Camping Trip Part 2 - Sisters
As we drove from Lund Park toward Sisters we started looking for hiking opportunities as we crossed the Cascade Range, but the first one looked too crowded to risk pulling into the parking lot with the trailer, and the second we drove down a short road to find a full parking lot, so we turned off on a road to Ikenik snow park. After studying the map for any sign of hiking trails (none), we decided we could make the gravel roads a scenic detour, and we stopped to hike on a mostly-unused forest road which looked like it would take us to a lake view. We never got the view – the end of the road was overtaken by blooming bushes, and it never got close enough to the lake anyway. But it was still a nice walk – we enjoyed seeing no signs of anyone around for at least a mile as we considered the over-full parking lots at the trail heads.
We had not driven over this pass for a few years and had forgotten how impressive the scenery is. Arriving in Sisters we found the traffic backed up for half a mile before the always-congested central part of town. We got through it and arrived at the Creekside city park, which also offers camping. It is crowded, but we get to take showers and eat out.
bringfido.com told us that Three Creeks Brewing less than a mile away allowed dogs on their patio, so we walked over and had Hoppy Hour specials for dinner along with a taster tray and a pint of Stonefly Session Ale and Sisters Country Saison. The Session Ale was really good, the Saison tasted predominately of banana, lacking the nutmeg and clove spice described, but I still enjoyed it. Their TenPine Imperial Porter was very tasty, and I liked the Bourbon Barrel aged version even better.
We decided to walk into Sisters in search of ice cream afterward, but we encountered the Eurosports Bikes and Food Cart Garden first. The food carts were doing good business, but the bike shop also had five beers on tap and live music was just ending when we walked in. We tried a Kobold mango ale of some kind. It was refreshing and fruity, but a bit bitter for me. By the time we arrived at the ice cream shop it was closed, but we were pretty satisfied anyway.
The next morning we got to take showers! They are coin-operated here, and not great, but still, we are cleaner than we’ve been in days.
We walked in to town because I ran out of milk for my tea and stopped by the Sisters Bakery. We got a ham and cheese croissant that must have weighed half a pound and a gigantic apple fritter. Both were delicious and kept us hiking for hours. We began driving up the road toward Three Creek Lake with the idea of hiking the Tam McArthur Rim trail around the lake, but we began seeing “Sno-Park Pass Required” signs, which reminded us we might need a NW Forest Pass. We’d seen a Ranger Station in town, so we turned around to go buy one. Unfortunately it was Saturday, so they were not open. However, we learned from the info sheets posted outside that we would encounter “deep snow” on the trail, so we chose to hike the Whychus Creek trail instead, which is not as far up the road, and where we would not need a pass to park.
It was a nice hike along, then above, then again along a rushing creek filled with snowmelt. We took a side trail to an overlook with a fabulous view of several mountains, then found a picnic spot near the creek. Overall we hiked more than five miles.
Once back at the truck we decided to drive up to Three Creek Lake to see it and the snow. The road from Sisters is about 12 miles of somewhat rough pavement, but the last two miles are very bumpy gravel. The view is worth the bumps, though: a pretty lake half-surrounded by a curving cliff (the Tam McArthur Rim) with mountains stretching off to the north. There are two campgrounds right on the lake, and another one in a beautiful meadow area just north of the lake. The campgrounds were pretty full, and we wondered, given how cold we felt with a low of 42 degrees last night, how cold it was sleeping there with snow on the hills nearby.
There is a funny little store there which promised ice cream, but did not yet have it. We got a cold root beer and walked around the lake a little bit, and Daisy got a chance to play in the snow.
We returned to the campground to spend some time on our iPads and make an odd but tasty dinner of left-overs. Daisy enjoyed resting on the grass.
Then we walked to BJ’s Homemade Ice Cream before it closed and had some really delicious “Oregon Trail” ice cream – chocolate with hazelnuts and marionberry jam. Then we walked to find the laundromat that we plan to use tomorrow.
The next day was mostly a laundry and shopping day. We tried to hike the Lower Whychus Creek trail (we’d been on the Upper one yesterday). The bike path that runs through the campground has a little signpost saying “Whychus Creek Trail.” However, this trail is only a tenth of a mile long and has nothing to do with the Lower Whychus Creek trail, which apparently requires driving six miles on a four-wheel-drive road. Instead, we found a nearby access to the Parker Ridge trail system and walked for a bit. We spotted two fawns running around playing in the woods. Then we stopped by the Sisters - Camp Sherman Fire Station and got a quick tour of their expansive truck bays from a friendly firefighter.
We’d seen a sign about a Farmers Market, and we found it not far from the Fire Station. It is a small market, but seemed to have some quality items, and we bought some carrots, beets, and radishes, and a loaf of bread from a wood-fired oven. We walked back to the campground and had a lunch of carrots and hummus and some of the bread we’d brought with us. The campground really cleared out, and while we ate lunch under the shade of our awning we watched a parade of people with RV’s visit the dump station.
We drove over to the laundromat got our business done there. After returning our laundry to its places in our luggage we checked our solar panel and found it was topping off our battery. After talking to a neighboring camper yesterday who was worried about his solar panel being stolen, we decided to put our panel away in the truck.
We decided to return to Three Creeks Brewing. It was less busy inside this time, but we had to wait for a table outside. As with our previous visit, our server had been working there only a few days. She was friendly, but I think she brought me the wrong beer and the serving staff just seemed overworked. The food was great, though, and we would order both the nachos and the pretzel again if we return.
We took another walk in or near the Parker Ridge trail system and spotted the two fawns and their mother. We talked about home designs while walking in the woods, then detoured a bit on the way back to camp through a little development of nice-looking houses. Some of the houses here mix Craftsman style with a bit of “cabin look” and have comfortable-looking porches.
On our final morning here we walked to downtown Sisters to get a little rubber o-ring that had fallen out of the trailer’s gas grill connector and to get some breakfast items from the Sisters Bakery. We got another very-filling ham and cheese croissant, a Bavarian-ish doughnut that was fabulous, a twist, plus a cinnamon roll and a small carrot cake to take with us to Strawberry Mountain.
We ate some of the breakfast on a bench in town, then the rest back in our trailer. We caught up on email, took showers, then packed up and rolled out, headed east.